Lunar Ashes
by imjusthorny
Summary: She's just a struggling trainer trying to not be a disappointment. He's a crazy, amnesiac wanderer who claims to have seen god. Still, she keeps him around as he seems to be quite good with this Pokémon business. Of course, she can do without having to deal with the Ultra Thingamajigs that keep attacking them.
1. Leave Him Alone

_A/N: Just a story that I left to die two years ago after the first chapter. Decided to bring it back with some edits and new stuff because I have gotten into Pokemon again. _

* * *

_He was standing in front of a rift in the fabric of reality._

_The air conditioning of the snow white structure kept him cool in the face of the tribulations he would soon undertake. He turned his head to the left, and met the reassuring smile of the yellow rodent latched onto his shoulder._

_Shortly after, a boy with a cool demeanor rudely brushed past him, not even offering a word of apology as he headed towards the glowing tunnel in front of them. From the way that the boy was dressed and the color of his hair, it appeared that purple was his favorite color._

_There was something about the purple jerk that caused an intense emotion to well up within him. It wasn't a particularly hateful one, nor particularly friendly. Just a feeling of not wanting to lose to him._

_A competitive passion...would be the best way to describe it._

_The next one to pass him by was a lively kid with a headband. He held no special feeling towards him._

_Standing next to the spatial tear was a woman with a blurred face. Her extravagant outfit seemed to imply someone of importance._

_His attention was taken away when he felt someone pat him on the back._

_This time, it was a pretty girl with bright orange hair._

_"Let's go…" Her lips moved silently. No words came out after that. Just soundless movement of the lips._

_He wondered what she was trying to tell him._

* * *

He woke up, feeling like he had gone through a whole ordeal.

And perhaps he did…

His hands were still red with blood and his shirt was riddled with cuts and gaps.

The last time those creatures appeared was about five hours ago. Or was it six. He honestly forgot.

The images in front of him zoomed in and out of focus to the unsteadiness of his breath. Like last time, they attacked him out of nowhere. And just like last time, he survived the encounter by the skin of his teeth.

In the silence of the night, he could almost hear his heart pound under the bones of his ribcage. His eyelids were getting heavy and threatened to shut once more.

He felt like he was tasting death.

What a bitter, putrid taste it was…

Yet, it felt strangely empty. Like there was supposed to be something more.

He slapped himself in the face to rid himself of the bizarre sentiments. He was nowhere near the age to start thinking about dying yet.

Brown eyes traveled the distance that his body couldn't, and landed on the light brown Iki Town soil. He figured that he could rest for a while, perhaps get a little bit of shut-eye before he started moving again. Once he reached Iki Town, he would find a place to spend the night and figure out where to go from there.

Who he was and how he ended up in this situation, he'd honestly forgotten. His memories had become a tad bit messed up ever since he injured his head. All he knew was that in order to survive, he needed to keep moving.

With those thoughts in mind, he allowed his eyes to close once more.

* * *

The rufflings of grass woke him from his light slumber. It was the morning already.

As his weary eyes adjusted to his surroundings, he immediately understood the predicament he landed himself into.

A group of yungoos had surrounded him. From the looks of it, their intentions weren't friendly.

In the center of the circular entrapment, was a commanding gumshoos, who stood there, its sleek body straightened with arcane nobility.

With eyes that commanded a level of authority and intimidation, the gumshoos sized him up, down, then up again. Through it all, his reinforcements, an eight-men squadron of yungoos, remained by the sides of their leader and waited on their hands and feet for a command.

It was like a mob boss and his henchmen.

He quickly tried to move away, his hands scraping against the grass underneath as he pulled his fatigued body along. The creatures, however, followed him and kept him in the center of their formation.

It didn't seem like they were going to let him leave so easily. At least not without some form of toll.

The wounded traveler laughed at the familiarity of this situation. Being extorted by wild Pokémon and wild human alike had become a regular part of his life . But he didn't have much to offer. No money and definitely no food. The last piece of valuables was a trinket he gave away to a gun-wielding hobo.

Slowly they approached him, their methodical drawn-out pace flirting with his rising anxiety. Globs of saliva slid down from the mouths of the ravenous felines and perched themselves upon the meadows of the sunlit route.

From their salivation, he had a feeling they wouldn't mind taking something more personal from him. Perhaps the sack of meat dangling between his legs or his body in its entirety.

Getting eaten was definitely something that he wanted to avoid. Not only did the process sound painful, but slow as well.

The traveler forced a hand up and summoned wisps of ribbon-like energy towards the center of his palm.

For a moment, the group of felines stopped in their tracks and watched in jaw-opening awe as a small luminous sphere took form in his hands. Even the gumshoos seemed to be somewhat in shock — a small victory that was significant enough for the traveler to grin in satisfaction.

This was an ability he found himself able to use.

From when, he could not remember.

But it came to him as easy as breathing.

It was how he was able to survive thus far by himself.

He didn't have enough energy to make a more potent blast, but with this, he hoped to at least spook them enough to leave him alone.

Just when he was about to fire it off, the sphere shattered into thousands of tiny sparkles. And when the last piece of energy dissipated in the air, his hopes of survival did as well.

Like what he suspected, he had reached his limits.

When fighting was no longer an option, he turned towards begging and reasoning.

"Okay fellas. Calm down a bit." He laughed, holding out a pair of shielding hands as he scooted further away from the approaching crowd. They took a step forward regardless.

"Eep! How about an apology? I will give one to you! Free of charge of course!"

They took another step forward.

"Oh! I know!" He said, putting his fist in an open palm, faking a sudden epiphany, "how about I treat you to breakfast?"

No response. At least, not verbally. Just the sound of advancing feet.

"Oh my, those teeth are sharp. Stop showing them to me please, it is making me uncomfortable. How about you all go grind them off somewhere else?"

When he saw that his words had fallen on deaf ears, he resigned himself to his fate and closed his eyes.

He hoped that he would at least pass out from the pain of the first bite and enjoy a relatively comfortable departure.

"Now, just wait a minute!"

The voice that ripped through the evening air didn't come from him. Even he wasn't pathetic enough to continue begging at this point in time.

The boy looked around, his eyes finally landing on the girl standing a mere couple feet away.

With a right combination of hyper and annoying, she bellowed, both hands clasping her waist in an imposing posturing. The way she stood was dominant and demanding, legs parted slightly. As if a superhero from the comic books.

"Leave the poor boy alone!"

He had never heard of a more annoying voice before.


	2. Teach Me Everything

The fight began without much of a delay.

"Rowlet, use Razor Leaf!"

The bird surged forward, taking air underneath its wings. Higher and higher it went as it ascended towards the sky, towards the sun, almost as if seeking to replace it with its own rotund body. Once he was high enough that everyone down under was blurred dots, he flapped his wings and rained down a flock of razor sharp leaves upon the pack of yungoos. Furiously the crescent leaves spun as they ripped through the air, and mercilessly they sliced as they made contact with their enemies' skin.

The green pastures of the road exploded into tiny craters of dirt from the stray leaves that failed to make contact with anyone. While all of this happened, only the area around the stern gumshoos remained unaffected. By the time the dust settled, all the yungoos were sprawled across the ground, each of them injured and struggled to get back on their feet. Through it all, only the gumshoos remained unharmed.

Ash gave a slight nod of approval at the girl's strategy. She had thinned out the crowd, and now, only the leader remained.

But in a second, when the yungoos started to rise up one after another, he knew that things wouldn't be as simple as he thought.

Retaliation came quickly as a cluster of mudballs towards rowlet. In response the owl dodged, flitting through the air like performing an exotic waltz before circling back to his trainer's shoulders. When he did, he landed with the utmost of grace.

The owl's zestful trainer extended an arm forward and towards the enemy. Her next command was delivered with just as much vibrant energy as her last. "Steel Wing!"

Rowlet took flight once again, this time his wings imbued with a silvery glow. His advances was once again met with the battalion of yungoos as they attempted to pepper him with rounds of condensed mud.

All the while the gumshoos stood behind them, his eyes narrowed into slits, and his hands linked firmly behind his back, neither showing fear nor any intent to join the battle.

For the sake of their safety, Ash hoped that it stayed that way.

The grass owl angled its body away from the incoming ammunition and flew to the left. Mud balls chased after him in pursuit, but tasted only the intangibility of air at the owl's superior speed.

Not long after, the owl was in position to breach their formation and breach it he did. With one steel-hard wing dipped close to the ground, the owl surged forward, plowing over the wounded yungoos one by one.

Once the last soldier was taken down, the owl pulled itself towards the sky until he was comfortably hovering over the leader of the obliterated army. Now all he needed to do was wait for his trainer's next order.

On the other side of the battle field, the hyper girl smiled from ear to ear at the successful development. With her confidence rising, she threw both arms outwards and spread them wide to the side. "Shadow Claw! "

Black energy cloaked the bird's talons, shifting around until they took the mold of an elongated claws. With his preparations completed, Rowlet tucked his wings and dive-bombed the squinting gumshoos. Once in reaching distance, he flipped his body forward and brought his talon down in a vicious axe kick aimed right at the head.

The attack connected and he thought he had kicked pretty hard. But the gumshoos acted as if he had just been tickled by the splash of a flopping Magikarp.

Then the squinting eyes jerked open, and the grass owl was quickly treated to the savagery the derpy expression had kept hidden.

It all happened so fast. One second he was trying to kick the gumshoos' head in. The next second the gumshoos had jumped towards his and pinned his body down onto the ground before he had the chance to get away.

The two of them wrestled on the ground, with rowlet trying to escape through increasingly desperate thrashing of his wings. Gumshoos on the other hand, simply calmed his prey down with a quick punch to the head, before shifting his legs to pin the bird's wings underneath him, completely establishing his dominance.

The gumshoos then opened his mouth and showed off teeth that brimmed with a luminous energy, its movements slow and deliberate, as if showing rowlet what was to come and at the same time taunting the owl for his helplessness.

All the while, on the side of the field, where the rowlet's trainer stood, was pure radio silence. No command. No nothing. Just a shocked girl who had dropped to her knees in fear.

The first bite hurt just as much as the second one and the owl squawked in agony at his mutilation. As his pain intensified, his wings shook more violently underneath his enemy's foot, his short legs kicked more furiously into nothing.

Then just when he thought it was all over. A sphere of blue energy flew in from seemingly out of nowhere and ripped the gumshoos off of him.

The gumshoos' body collided harshly against the earth, his body dragged by the force of the energy sphere until he finally came to a stop a dozen meters away. When he stopped, he didn't get back up again, seemingly knocked out in one hit.

Rowlet looked around, hoping to catch the form of his savior. His eyes eventually landed on the boy that he was instructed to save.

Like him, the boy was not in good shape and had to place one hand on a tree to prevent himself from keeling over.

The boy's complexion was worse than it was just a few moments ago. All colors seemed to drain from his face and his lips appeared unusually pale. Still, the boy managed to stagger over and scooped him up in his arms.

"Ghost-type attacks don't work on Normal-types. Did you not know that?" The boy asked as he limped over to the owl's trainer.

The girl looked up slightly, her brown eyes shining with mild apprehension and fear. The look of a child waiting to get scolded.

Ash freed up one of his arms and helped the girl to her feet. Then he unloaded the owl into her arms as well.

"We'll need to get to a Pokémon center as soon as possible. But for now, let's return your rowlet to his Pokeball so he will be more comfortable."

"Y-yeah, I will do that." The girl responded and timidly produced a Pokeball from behind her. The boisterous girl who had demanded the yungoos to leave him a short while ago was all but gone. In its place was a fearful shell.

As he waited for the girl to do what he told her, he took the moment to survey the scene. On the floor were a group of knocked out yungoos, and far away from the rest of the pack, was their unconscious leader.

It felt like a bit of a waste to let such an opportunity slip by.

"While you're at it. Why don't you try and catch the gumshoos as well?" He suggested.

The girl nodded, and hurried scurried over to toss a Pokeball at the gumshoos. It was like commanding a very obedient, very well-trained Pokémon. The girl was just doing everything he told her to.

The shock of seeing her beloved owl get ripped into by a gumshoos probably still hadn't worn off.

"Come on, let's go to the Pokémon center now." He said as he limped ahead to try and lead the way. Of course, the girl followed along obediently. He had no idea where he was going, but he hoped that the girl would show him the right way eventually.

* * *

At evening time, they were all comfortably resting in the Pokémon Center. Both the girl and him were sitting on the couch on the lobby, while the troublemakers of the day were in the capable hands of Nurse Joy.

It took another hour or so for the girl to stop fidgeting with the fabric of her shorts and start talking to him.

"You are good at this Pokémon stuff aren't you?"

He shrugged. "I guess so. I think I might have been a trainer too at one point."

The girl raised a quizzical eyebrow. "You think? What do you mean?"

"My memory is a bit foggy. I'm not too sure who I am, where I am, or how I know the stuff that I know."

He was sure by this point the girl thought he was making all these up. Even though she didn't say it outright, the increasingly puzzled expression on the girl's face told him what he needed to know.

Truth be told, if he was in her position, he wouldn't believe the story either.

"Anyways," the girl said, her eyes regaining a firmless that had been missing for a while as she leaned forward, towards him. "Please teach me everything you know!"

There was a brief moment of silence between them as he waited for his brain to register what was said.

When all was done, all he had to say was a surprised "huh?"

It wasn't the most intelligible of response but it captured his sentiments perfectly.

"Please!" The girl quickly added before he had a chance to refuse, her hands reaching to seize his to prevent him from walking away. "Tomorrow I will have to compete in a festival in honor of the great Tapu Koko. My mom is going to be there and I can't afford to disappoint her!"

The situation was getting a bit uncomfortable. On one hand, a girl was touching his hand and begging him for a favor. On the other hand, he wasn't planning on staying in this Pokémon Center for too long. Now that he had recharged his energy and gotten some food, he was planning on leaving the town as soon as possible to avoid dragging others into his troubles.

"Well, I'm kind of busy…"

"I will pay you!"

He frowned. Something about accepting payment from a younger girl who just wanted to impress her mother felt weird to him.

"I guess if it means that much to you, I suppose I can give you a couple of pointers."

The girl's face split into a smile at his agreement and she proceeded to bow her head in gratitude. "Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

He waited out the awkwardness of the situation and the peers of curious eyes before speaking again.

"So tell me about the festival."

The girl raised her head back up and adjusted her toque with her hands. "Well, it is a festival held to honor the guardian deities that had been protecting this island. The Island Kahuna gave us a couple of days to prepare for it, which was how I stumbled across you when I was out there training."

"So who will you be facing?"

"The grandson of the kahuna. I think his name is Hau."

"That does sound like it will be challenging."

She agreed with him with an eager nod. "I know right? This is why I'm so stressed out!"

Well, now everything was starting to make a little more sense to him. Why the girl was so desperate for him to teach her. Why the girl was out there in the wild.

Ash took a look at the round clock mounted on the Pokémon Center wall. They had been here for a while already. Within another hour, both rowlet and gumshoos should be in good condition for some training.

"Meet me out there in the training field in an hour."

With that he stood up and left.

He had been holding in his pee for quite a while now.


	3. Festival

They trained until an hour before the festival, with him helping the girl's pokémon learn new moves as well as upping their physical aptitude. Through it all, he learned that her name was Moon.

Before they went their separate ways, the girl practically begged him to come by the next morning to watch her perform.

If he refused, he had a feeling that she would get down on her knees and beg—and nobody needed to see a scene like that.

So he agreed, if only to get her off his case, and swore by their promise with their pinkies.

On the night of the festival, the air brimmed with an excitement that he hadn't felt in a while. It felt like just not long ago, _he_ was the one in the center of this fiery uproar. With people cheering for him.

In front of him, the two chosen gladiators stared at each other with confident, undaunting smiles. Their bodies were straightened with the best of postures.

The moment Moon caught his eyes in the crowd, he gave her a thumbs up to let her know that he did in fact honor their promise before sneaking away a few moments later.

He hid himself behind a pillar near the outskirts of the town, away from the masses gathered at the town's center, where he intended on observing the rest of the contest.

Truth be told, Ash was curious. More so than he expected himself to be.

Moon's opponent didn't seem to be that bad of a person. In fact, he was somewhat energetic, but well meaning. Almost a mirror reflection of the girl herself.

The boy's attire was rather simple. A plain black t-shirt worn with floral patterned shorts. His hair was tied up in an unremarkable topknot.

From what he gathered from the words and chants of the town people, the boy's name was Hau, and he was the grandson of this island's kahuna.

Standing in the center of the two competitors was the island's kahuna, whose resemblance to Hau was quite clear and evident. In a way, the kahuna looked like an older and more heavyset version of his grandson.

Held in the dignified kahuna's hands were two flags, one red, one green. The red one represented Moon, while the green one represented Hau.

"This contest will be a two-on-two pokémon battle! A victor will be declared once a side loses all usable pokémon. Without further ado, let the annual Iki Town Festival Battle commence!" The elderly kahuna then stepped back to allow the youngsters to have their spotlight.

Both competitors prepped their Pokeball at the same time and threw them towards the field.

"Come on out, rowlet!"

"Come on out, pikipek!"

From bursts of lights, the birds emerged and sized each other up, circling each other in the air.

Pikipek let out a prideful cry, which Rowlet followed…a tad unconvincingly.

Moon placed a face on her palm, her feet stomping the ground in a mini tantrum. "Geez! rowlet, show some backbones! You're embarrassing me!"

"Moon, do your best! Your mother is here to support you!"

Moon's face reddened as she turned towards the youthful woman in the crowd . "...Mom, you're embarrassing me too!"

Hau smiled.

Moon straightened herself out. "Anyway, I will let my skills do the talking! Rowlet, time to show the result of our training! Use Steel Wings!'

The owl glided towards the woodpecker with silvery wings, his body even and graceful in the air, yet at the same time, not lacking in speed.

He missed when his opponent dodged to the side.

Hau's eyes flared with a strange gleam as he capitalized on the opening. "Pikipek, use Drill Peck!"

In an instant, Pikipek started to spin like a drill. Then with just as much spontaneity and explosiveness in movement, it corkscrewed from the left to right, cut right across the owl's chest.

Rowlet fell onto the floor in pain, letting out a shriek in the process.

From the sidelines, Ash looked on concerned. _Drill Peck. That's quite a high level Flying-type move! And Rowlet is a Grass-type Pokémon. This is quite a pickle..._

He focused his eyes on Moon and prayed that the girl had a solid strategy in mind.

Sweats dropped from Moon's face at the sudden disadvantage that she found herself in. Even a novice like her didn't need to consult the Move Encyclopedia to know that her rowlet's technique had been outclassed.

Fighting the drilling pecks of pikipek head on wouldn't be a good idea. What she needed to do now was to create some distance while she came up with a counter strategy.

When Hau ordered his bird to use Drill Peck again, Moon ordered her bird to run away.

"Fly into the sky!" She cried out. "Don't let pikipek catch you!"

Rowlet forced himself off the ground and zipped straight up into the air, pikipek drilling right behind him in hot pursuit.

Within moments, rowlet found itself overtaken by pikipek's superior speed and suffered yet another Drill Peck straight to the chest. This time though, he managed to push past the pain and regain his balance in the air with a few hasty flaps of his wings.

Moon cheered from down below. "Good job, rowlet! Now pay pikipek back with Steel Wing!"

From behind the pillar, Ash shook his head disapprovingly. There was no way rowlet would be able to land a hit like that, pikipek's speed was much faster.

To win, the girl needed to think outside the box, just like how he told her the night before.

Like he feared, at Hau's command, pikipek flew up and dodged the approaching rowlet effortlessly. The woodpecker then continued his ascend, drawing the distance between himself and the opposing rowlet even further despite the owl's best effort to catch up.

"Now, finish her rowlet off with a Super Drill Peck!"

With a sharp angular turn in the air, pikipek descended towards the rowlet down below, his body corkscrewing with a new intensity, and his speed amped by the pull of gravity.

Almost intuitively, Moon knew that if this attack were to land, then her rowlet would be done for.

She needed to think of something. She need to think of something to stop the drilling motion of her enemy. Or at the very least innovate a technique that could help rowlet fight pikipek evenly.

Damn it, she was drawing blanks.

_Just when your opponent thinks they won, an outside the box strategy will turn the tides of the battle. _

Her eyes widened in epiphany as her mentor's words flashed across her mind.

Drill Peck might indeed be a deadly move. But if she could disrupt the bird's spiraling motion, then the whole move would fall apart. Instead of focusing on overpowering pikipek, what she needed to focus on was the beak.

"Rowlet, use Energy Ball! Aim it straight at the beak!"

The smile of confidence faded slightly from Hau's face. "Energy Ball? But that's a Grass-type move. Drill Peck should be able to pierce right through… Right?" He turned towards his grandfather Hala for confirmation.

Hala simply narrowed his eyes at the two battling birds.

True to Moon's wishes, Rowlet sent a green orb of natural energy hurtling from its throat. The viridescent sphere expanded as it soared through its collision course with Hau's pikipek, enlarging to roughly the size of a soccer ball.

The two techniques clashed against each other with zero delay.

Energy Ball unraveled into harmless strings as pikipek drilled into it. But, even just slightly, Moon could see that pikipek's movement had begun to slow.

"Rowlet, use consecutive Energy Balls!"

"What?" Hau was taken aback. "I thought I just proved that Energy Ball was useless against my pikipek! You're just wasting your pokémon's energy!"

It was Moon's words that rowlet chose to believe in, as it quickly released a barrage of Energy Balls from its throat, lining one blast straight after another.

Each one of the spheres dissipated at the tip of pikipek's twisting beak, but eventually pikipek stopped spinning as well, having had its stamina whittled down steadily by rowlet's barrage.

"This is our chance!" Moon jumped with excitement. "Use Steel Wing!"

Hau panicked, waving an arm in front of himself in haste. "Dodge it, pikipek."

Exhausted, pikipek could only squeal as the metal wings of rowlet whipped across his face.

The woodpecker crashed onto the floor, the whites of his eyes showing for all to see.

"Oh no, pikipek!" Hau cried out as he rushed to his bird's side, gently scooping it up in his arms. "You did your best."

Hala raised a flag in Moon's favor.

"Pikipek is unable to battle, so the winner is Moon's rowlet!"

Hau returned pikipek back to his Pokeball, and reached for another one from his belt holster. He smiled at Moon. "Man, your rowlet sure can take a hit. But this time, it is going to be different."

Moon returned the smile. "Your pikipek wasn't too bad either. I'm looking forward to what you have next."

She quite enjoyed this feeling of sportsmanship. It gave her a fuzzy feeling inside. Perhaps being a Pokémon Trainer wouldn't be as hard as she feared.

"Come on out, litten!" Hau tossed his new Pokeball, unleashing a black and red cat. The cat purred and licked its paws before assuming an aggressive stance.

Moon pulled out her Rotom Pokédex, allowing the device to fill in the blanks of her mind.

"Litten. Fire Cat Pokémon. Its coat regrows twice a year. When the time comes, Litten sets its own body on fire and burns away the old fur."

The girl set the Pokédex aside and withdrew her rowlet. "If it is a Fire-type Pokémon, then we might be at a disadvantage. Besides, I think my rowlet is a bit tired."

She reached for the Pokeball of her newest acquisition and tossed it onto the field.

"It is your turn, gumshoos!"

The mongoose like creature landed on the field, hands running through the yellow tuft of hair on its head before linking behind his back. His eyes were once again narrowed into a slit, giving it a lackadaisical disposition.

Hau chuckled. "It doesn't seem like gumshoos is that excited to battle."

Moon shook her head. "He just looks like this, but when he gets serious, he's a real force to be reckoned with!' She went and gave gumshoos a playful pat on the back. "Right, gumshoos?"

When the long-bodied Pokémon only stared back at her with his eyes, she couldn't help but back off a little. It seemed that her gumshoos didn't feel comfortable with her gesture of affection.

Then again, she couldn't tell what it was thinking if it just kept staring at her with those eyes.

"A-anyway, let's get the battle started." She declared, hoping to blow past her embarrassment.

Luckily, Hau seemed to oblige.

"Litten." The boy commanded. "Use Fire Fang!"

The feline charged at them with breakneck speeds, a blanket of inferno coating his teeth.

"Gumshoos, use Mud-Slap!"

Gumshoos reared back, his stomach inflating, and let loose a concentrated stream of mud.

"Dodge it, litten!"

The cat sidestepped the stream, and lunged at the mongoose, chomping down hard on its head.

Yet, in spite of getting its head caught in the cat's fiery mouth, gumshoos stood perfectly still, almost hardly fazed. Much unlike his trainer, who was gasping in horror.

Moon could only imagine how much pain the gumshoos must be enduring just to keep up a tough-guy exterior. The pokémon was once a leader of a yungoos mob after all. His pride from those days must have still lingered.

"Gumshoos, shake him off and use Thunder Punch!"

Gumshoos swung his head wildly and tossed the feline into the air. He followed up by jumping up and sent the cat crashing down onto the floor with a lightning fist.

The ensuing impact was enough to cause a miniature geyser of dirt to be born from the shattered earth.

Once the dirt cloud dissipated, litten was on his feet again, even if just barely.

Hau breathed a sigh of relief and smiled at his opponent. "Man, I'm glad that things wasn't over just like that. Your gumshoos really does pack a punch!"

Moon scratched her head sheepishly. "Your litten isn't half bad either!"

Hau's face became focused once more. "Yes, and we're not going down anytime soon! Litten, use Flame Charge!"

With his body doused in flames, the cat pounced forward, charging straight at his competition.

"Dodge it!" Moon commanded.

Gumshoos obeyed as it jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding the cat's fiery tackle.

"Use consecutive Flame Charges!"

This time it was Moon who was surprised. The strategy was almost identical to her consecutive energy ball strategy from earlier—the same strategy that her opponent criticized.

And just like her strategy, Hau's quickly paid its own dividends as its merits shone through.

The cat just kept getting faster and faster.

At first dodging Litten was manageable, but after the fifth time that the cat ran charging towards her Gumshoos, her pokémon was hit before he could even react.

"Gumshoos!" She cried out in the midst of the blazing pummeling that her partner now found himself in.

Caught in the center, gumshoos could do little as litten whizzed into him over and over.

Moon clenched her teeth. She needed to think of something before it was too late.

She needed to think outside the box just like her mentor instructed her.

Then, for the second time of the day, Moon's eyes widened as a lightbulb went on in her head.

"Gumshoos, use Mud-Clap on the floor!"

The mongoose looked over towards her, seemingly confused. But when he got knocked onto his butt for what felt like the umpteenth time, he decided to obey his master.

Gumshoos jumped into the air, by sheer luck avoiding the litten who charged him by, and let loose a stream of mud from his stomach that quickly covered the battlefield. Litten jumped away to avoid getting swept away by the mud.

The gumshoos landed on the ground with an audible tap, but quickly fell onto his face from the wounds of battle.

Hau raised an amused eyebrow. "What was the point of all that?"

Moon didn't respond, causing the dark skinned boy to shrug noncommittally. "Anyway, litten use Flame Charge to finish the gumshoos off! He's on his last legs!"

The cat smirked and obeyed, shrouding himself in a flaming cloak once more. It rushed forward…...and slipped.

Litten got back up to try again, only to slip again.

"What is happening?" Hau gasped in disbelief, until finally his eyes zoned in on the field covered in mud.

"That's it!" He shouted in realization. "The field is so muddy and slippery now, which makes it hard for litten to run!"

Moon snapped her fingers in affirmation. "Bingo!"

Even Ash had to let lose a small smirk at the ingenuity of that plan.

"Now, gumshoos. Use Rock Tomb!"

The squint-eyed creature slammed its paw on the floor, causing spears of earth to erupt from underneath litten, launching the cat into the air.

When the cat landed, it had passed out from the beating that it took.

For the second time in this contest, Hala raised a flag in the favor of Moon.

"Litten is unable to battle. So the victor is gumshoos! This concludes our 2-2 battle. The winner of this contest is Moon!"

* * *

Somehow the girl managed to sneak away from the celebratory festivities that ensued after her battle and spotted him before he could get too far away.

"Hey you!" The girl's voice boomed from behind him.

Ash stopped in his tracks to allow her to catch up. The girl panted heavily as she allowed her body to recover.

"I saw your battle, it was great." Ash said.

"Thank you." The girl managed to straighten herself. "Where are you heading off to?"

Truth be told, even Ash had no idea where he was planning on going to. He just knew that he shouldn't stay here. Or else others would be caught in his trouble as well.

He looked towards the starry sky, before speaking, his voice pensive. "Somewhere far away, I think."

"Why don't you stay with me?"

_Huh? _

Ash turned his head away from the sky and looked at the girl, who was refusing to meet his gaze. Instead, her flushed face was turned away to look at a patch of grass.

"I'm afraid I can't…"

Her embarrassment seemed to have turned into anger as she stomped a foot against the ground. "Why not?!"

"Like I said before…"

At that moment, the very sky above them seemed to have cracked.


End file.
